


Freefall

by Woolverine



Series: Even Shadows Dream [2]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 23:08:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10931928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woolverine/pseuds/Woolverine





	Freefall

EOS

Drack growled. What he knew about human mating relationships could be carved onto one of his teeth, and there would still be space left over. He’d picked up a bit more about other human behaviours though, and most feelings were pretty standard across the species. 

The Pathfinder hadn’t been quite right since Sloane Kelly had been exterminated. She had argued with Vidal after realising he was the Charlatan, had stormed off. The Tempest hadn’t been back to Kadara since, and the gossip was the Pathfinder had been ignoring Vidal’s emails. She didn’t want to talk about Kadara, about what had happened, about Vidal. Nearly everyone had tried to get Ryder to open up, however she refused point blank to discuss anything personal. That was down to her dad being a dick, Drack believed. Probably filled her head with nonsense about feelings being bad. Now, Drack wasn’t a touchy feely person, in tune with his emotions, blah blah blah, but his long life had taught him shoving your feelings into the back of your skull and pretending they don’t exist was an easy way to mess yourself up.Yeah, he usually expressed his feelings by breaking someone, maybe a few someones, he didn’t let them fester any more. Ryder’s skull was definitely full of festering feelings that needed release.

Now she had come back onto the Tempest after going off to meet Brodie’s friend on Prodromos, looking like a vorcha had crapped in her helmet. The Pathfinder’s eyes had been red, her face white with blotchy red patches, and Drack knew these were signals of distress in the young human. Drack was going to find out what Brodie had done to upset the Pathfinder, make him fix it.

And squash the twerp. 

Brodie was in the galley, babbling away at Vetra, who was doing her best to ignore him. 

“What happened in Prodromos?” Drack demanded.

“Nothing much. I introduced Ryder to my friend, Jill, they chatted, then Ryder got a notification from SAM and had to come straight back. Which was a shame, because we’d been going to have tea.”

Vetra tilted her head towards Drack. “Something up, old man?”

“Think so. Ryder had those red blotches on her face. You know the ones. Distress signal,” Drack responded. 

Vetra’s posture stiffened. “Gil, who is your friend? What did she say to Ryder?”

“Do you never listen to anything I say? Jill is a reproduction specialist. She’s been taking the conception blocks out of people, so they can have babies? Jill calls it boosting the batter. I thought she was going to ask Ryder about getting her batter boosted, but it turned out that wasn’t what Jill was after,” Brodie said.

Drack and Vetra exchanged speaking looks.

“Did you tell Ryder about this batter boosting nonsense?” the krogan snarled. 

“Yeah, course, didn’t want Jill to ambush her with it,” the engineer answered. 

Drack picked up Brodie’s metal mug and crushed it in his fist. Hot liquid spurted over his clothing and claw, and he flicked it into Brodie’s soft human face. “You’re looking particularly squishy today, human.”

Brodie threw himself backward in his chair, scrambling as far away as he could get from the krogan. Unfortunately, Drack was between the engineer and the door, and the human looked around the small room desperately. 

Drack laughed. “Get back to your toys, Brodie. I’ll sort you out later.” Humans could be so very entertaining. He locked the galley door behind Brodie, then settled himself onto a chair. 

“This is bad,” he stated. “You don’t mess females around when it comes to fertility. Their sense of humour vanishes.”

“Female? Right here, old man?”

“See what I mean. Vanishes.” 

The turian threw the ruined mug at Drack, who took no notice of it bouncing off his face plate. 

“Ryder still moping after Vidal?” he asked.

“I think so. You think so?”

“Yep.” He groaned. “Females. Boyfriends. Always trouble. And you can’t just kill the male, because the female might want to kill him herself.”

“Exactly,” Vetra said. “What do we do then, Drack? If anything?”

“What can we do? Drag her to Kadara, deliver her in a crate to the Charlatan with a note telling him to beg her forgiveness, and make up with her?”

“I think we should hold back on that plan. See if something better turns up.”

“Doubt it. Ryder is as stubborn as a krogan. However, if we can get her to Kadara Port, she’ll find herself in that private room without even thinking about it.”

“What makes you believe that?” Vetra asked, curious.  
“Love has weight. Its gravity will pull Ryder in.”

“You are such a romantic, Drack!” the turian exclaimed.

“Don’t tell anyone, or I’ll rip your mandibles off.”

Vetra curled up with laughter. “Sure thing, old man.”

 

ELAADAN

He’d found some extra bloody work on Elaadan to keep the kid occupied, cheer her up a bit. And that had been a good plan, at the beginning. The Pathfinder had taken no shit from anyone - human, angaran, or krogan. Drack had been proud of the enthusiasm for widescale slaughter she’d shown. Off the battlefield, Ryder had still been listless, mopey even. He’d tried catching her interest in the latest mods he’d made to his weapons - not a single question, no admiration, nothing.

She’d gone through the Flophouse like a frag grenade through cheese. That had been concerning. No sign of her usual compassion, no trying to give the scavengers a chance to talk. Just straight in, wiped them all out, looted the place, and back to the ship. Ryder had taken every job offered without hesitation or question. They’d gone to Aya and back merely to find some lovesick krogan’s angaran girlfriend. Ridiculous waste of resources. 

The Architect though. That was when Drack really started to worry, because of that fight. The Pathfinder had shown practically no common sense, standing at point blank range, blasting away with a shotgun. Where was her self-preservation? He hadn’t been there, or he’d have dragged her away to a sensible distance. Vetra had described the scene to Drack afterwards. He had been horrified. One thing for him for carry out a fight at such close quarters, he’s a krogan! Built for battle! Humans though. Drack didn’t know what they had been been built for, but they were too soft and squishy for it to be battle. Even if some of them were bloody good at killing.

Drack had cornered Vetra in her storage room while the rest of the crew were eating. 

“Ryder is not getting any better.”

“I’ve noticed,” the turian said.

“Maybe one of the humans knows how to help her?”

“I’ve tried that. Couldn’t get her to open up to me, suggested talking to Suvi or Harper. Ryder refused. Said a leader shouldn’t burden their team with their personal life. Pointed out that’s one of Lexi’s duties, to help the Pathfinder, but Ryder claimed that was only for work related problems.”

“Crap.”

“Yeah. So I told Suvi to speak to Ryder, see if she could pry anything out. No go. Turned down flat, told her not to listen to me. Because I’m just being an overprotective  
big sister, making something out of nothing.”

“Double crap.”

“Your crate idea is actually starting to sound like a possible plan.”

“The kid is going to do herself real harm if she keeps locking up her head like this. She’s taking stupid risks, picking unnecessary fights, charging into combat without looking first.”

“I agree with you, Drack. But what can we do? We can’t force Ryder talk to us.”

“Get her drunk?”

“Drack, you know she’s even more aggressive when she’s drunk. Plying her with a copious amount of booze is never going to end well,” Vetra chided.

“Then we’re back to the crate.” 

“The crate… the crate is never going to work, Drack. You know that, I know that.”

“You say that now, Nyx. I have faith in the crate.”

 

THE HYPERION

Drack didn’t know what time it was, apart being the middle of the fucking night. Who the fuck was sending him priority messages? Lots of them, one after another. Still, he had been able to ignore them. If something was actually urgent, Ryder would bang on his door. But when the lights switched on by themselves, the krogan stirred himself to check his omni-tool. 

The messages were all from SAM. Urgent, urgent, emergency, urgent. What the fuck? Drack tapped in the sequence which would connect him with the AI. 

“SAM, what the fuck is wrong with you? I’m an old man, I need my sleep.”

“The Pathfinder is having an emotional crisis, Drack.”

“Then bother T’Perro. I can’t handle that.”

“The Pathfinder has specifically instructed me not to contact the doctor, or any other medical personnel.”

“Then bother Vetra or Suvi, even Harper.”

“I believe the Pathfinder will not talk to them either.”

“And why do you think she will talk to me? What the hell has happened to the kid? We’re on an arc, at the Nexus.”

“Sara unlocked a memory her father hidden within me. It has caused her great upset and distress. I am worried for her safety. She has not stopped crying since. Sara keeps saying she needs her father.”

Drack rolled out of bed. “Okay, yeah, this might be something I can handle. Try to handle. Where is Ryder?”

“In the Pathfinder’s quarters next to SAM node. She has overridden the door controls to prevent the door being opened but I can bypass her workarounds and let you inside.”

The krogan shoved his feet into his slippers and grabbed his bathing robe. Seemed like the kid couldn’t wait for him to get fully suited and booted. If any of the squishies screamed themselves to death after seeing a nearly naked krogan, they were probably too weak to survive in Heleus anyway. 

“I’m on my way, SAM.”

 

Drack sighed heavily when he saw the state the kid was in. She was curled up in a corner of the room, clutching a cushion. Her eyes were bright red, the blotchy patches covered her face and neck, and she was rocking backwards and forwards. 

What the fuck has that arsehole Alec Ryder done now? Drack thought. If he weren’t dead already, I’d space him myself for this. 

He lumbered over to Ryder, touched her arm. “Hey, kid. SAM let me in.”

Sara flung herself into his arms, sobbing. He patted her back, grunted soothingly. Well, the noises had always soothed Kesh when she’d been upset. 

“Tell me what’s wrong, Sara.”

She didn’t answer, just kept crying. 

“Ryder! Report!” Drack snarled.

Sara jerked back, wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Everything has gone to shit and there’s no one I can talk to about it.”

“Not me? No one from the crew?”

“How can I? They need to believe in me, everyone needs to believe in me, and if they know what’s going on in my head, they’ll lose that belief. They’ll lose their hope. I have to be strong for everyone. It’s beyond hard.”

“Right, I’m putting my foot down now, Sara. If you can’t talk to anyone here, we’re going to someplace where there is someone you can share with. Right now. You can’t keep this shit festering in your head.”

“I can’t go anywhere. I can’t let anyone see me like this. Anyway, doesn’t matter where we go, there isn’t anyone in this whole damn galaxy I can talk to. My dad is dead, Scott may as well be dead, my mum…” Sara started crying again. 

“You can lie to yourself, but you ain’t fooling me, Sara. We’re going to Kadara Port, you’re going to see Vidal, and you are going to unburden yourself.”

Drack used his sleeve to wipe tears and snot from the Pathfinder’s face. “It doesn’t matter what you say to him, it won’t change how he feels, he’ll still believe in you, and you know that.”

“He’s the Charlatan,” she protested.

“So fucking what? He’s done more good for Kadara than anyone apart from you. Vidal loves you more than he loves his own quads, and that’s saying something. I’ll tell Kallo to get ready to lift.”

The Pathfinder sniffed. “Fine, okay, maybe I can talk to Reyes. Maybe. But we have to wait. We can’t let anybody see me in this condition. I need to tell Tann we’re leaving, think of an excuse for us to go back to Kadara…”

“No waiting!” Drack interrupted. “We go now. This has been building up for weeks, and it needs sorted. If Vidal is the only option, we ain’t hanging around waiting for Tann’s permission.”

The krogan tapped his omni-tool. “Nyx! Wake up! The crate plan is a go. Get a big enough crate to Ryder’s quarters on the Hyperion now.”

“You are shitting me, old man,” responded Vetra sleepily. “The crate plan is rubbish.”

“You and Vetra have a crate plan? Do I even want to know?” Sara sounded almost calm, almost normal. 

“You’ll find out soon enough. Get your armour on, you’ll need it to breathe.”


End file.
